CIRCUMSTANCES OF LOSSIn the November 1942 Matanikau Offensive, three Marine battalions trapped several hundred Japanese in a shrinking pocket west of Point Cruz. On 3 November, the Marines moved in to wipe out the last of the defenders.Corporal Weldon Delong of K/3/5 distinguished himself early in the battle by leading an attack on a Japanese field piece that was causing heavy casualties to his company. While mopping up the area, he was shot through the heart by a sniper and died instantly. His body was buried in the vicinity, but has not yet been accounted for.

Biography:
Coming soon. Contact the webmaster for information on this Marine.

Weldon Delong [sic] started running back and forth with nothing but a pistol and firing whenever he saw a downed Jap make a move. I guess he’d dropped his rifle in the heat of the charge instead of trying to reload. Delong had put several enemy wounded out of their misery when Slim Somerville spotted three or four Japs hiding in some water behind a log. They thought we couldn’t see them, but Somerville noticed their reflections…. “Get down! Get down!” Slim yelled.
I’d always liked going on patrols with Delong because he was always so alert to everything around us. Always looking up in trees and behind the bushes. Always checking out anything that looked suspicious. Other guys in my squad were good, too; they just weren’t as good as Weldon Delong. But on this particular afternoon, he was too intent on looking for Japs to hear Somerville’s warning. One of the Japs in the water fired, and teh bulled slammed into Delong’s chest. He went down without a sound and never moved again.
After some other Marines took care of the Japs behind the log, I ran over to Delong. He was lying in a puddle of blood with his eyes wide open and his pistol still in his hand. The bullet had gone straight through his heart. He was as dead as a man could get. …I felt like someone had kicked me in the gut. Delong’s death left me shaken as bad as I’d ever been. I considered him the best Marine in my former squad and maybe the best in the whole platoon…. One moment of carelessness had cost him his life.
He was posthumously awarded a Navy Cross for outstanding valor that day in leading the charge against one of those Jap field pieces and then wrecking the gun. He also had a ship named in his honor.
But even more important than that, he was my friend.

– Jim McEnery K/3/5, Hell In The Pacific: A Marine Rifleman’s Journey from Guadalcanal to Peleliu

Articles and Records:

Muster roll of K/3/5th Marines, November 1942.

Aerial view of the Point Cruz area. The Japanese were trapped along the coast at the base of the point. Numbers indicate important hills (measured in height).